Gender

by Colebrook, Claire

• ISBN13: 9780333994573
• ISBN10: 0333994574
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-04
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book offers a clear introductory overview of the concept of gender. It places gender in its historical contexts and traces its development from the Enlightenment to the present, before moving on to the evolution of the concept of gender from within the various stances of feminist criticism, and recent developments in queer theory and post-feminism. Close analysis of key literary texts, including Frankenstein, Paradise Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream, shows how specific styles of literature enable reflection on gender.

Author Biography

Claire Colebrook is in the Department of English Literature at Edinburgh University.

Table of Contents

General Editor's Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
1. Gender before Modernity	1	(39)
Gender and polarity	4	(5)
Nature/culture: Sex/gender	9	(2)
What sort of difference is gender difference?	11	(4)
Essence and gender	15	(3)
The gender of souls	18	(6)
Matter and the realisation of gender	24	(2)
Gender without sex	26	(3)
A Midsummer Night's Dream	29	(11)
2. Gender as Form and the Masculinity of Reason	40	(36)
The gender of form and reason	50	(4)
Deconstruction	54	(4)
Binaries of reason and gender: Genevieve Lloyd	58	(4)
Paradise Lost	62	(14)
3. Modernity and the Materiality of Gender	76	(41)
Sex and matter: Modern empiricism and liberalism	76	(6)
Third-wave feminism: Reality and essence	82	(6)
Subjectivity, ideas and experience	88	(5)
Man and modern subjectivity	93	(4)
Modern science and mathematics	97	(7)
Patriarchy	104	(5)
Patriarchy and the sexual contract: Carole Pateman	109	(8)
4. Sex without Gender	117	(28)
First-wave feminism and the sex/gender distinction	117	(2)
Enlightenment feminism	119	(4)
Marriage and gender harmony	123	(3)
Second-wave feminism and difference	126	(9)
Psychoanalytic feminism	135	(2)
The Oedipal production of gender	137	(8)
5. Beyond Sex and Gender	145	(47)
Third-wave feminism	145	(2)
Difference before sex and gender	147	(5)
Lacan and the subject of signification	152	(8)
Levi-Strauss and the exchange of women	160	(32)
6. Sexual Difference and Embodiment	192	(14)
Lacan, negativity and desire	192	(2)
The body	194	(4)
Luce Irigaray and the positive feminine	198	(8)
7. Sexuality and Queer Theory	206	(33)
Michel Foucault and the history of sexuality	206	(5)
Performativity	211	(4)
Volatile bodies	215	(13)
Queer theory and the critique of gender: Butler, Sedgwick, Edelman and Bersani	228	(6)
Moira Gatens and the critique of gender	234	(5)
Conclusion: Reading Gender	239	(14)
Frankenstein	239	(1)
First-wave feminist and humanist reading	239	(1)
Second-wave or radical feminist readings	240	(1)
Third-wave feminist readings	241	(2)
Reading gender	243	(10)
Annotated Bibliography	253	(5)
Bibliography	258	(14)
Index	272